In the motor vehicle field, it is known practice to use a clutch-engagement/disengagement thrust bearing for transmitting a control force to a clutch-disengagement mechanism placed between the output from an engine and a gearbox. Such a clutch-engagement/disengagement thrust bearing must allow the gearbox shaft to rotate, while the engagement mechanism is not rotated. That is why a clutch-engagement/disengagement thrust bearing is usually formed by a ball bearing.
It is furthermore known, for example from FR-A-2 544 429, to use a bistable washer in order to secure a piston for the control of a clutch-engagement/disengagement thrust bearing to the inner ring of this thrust bearing. A deflector delimits a chamber for receiving the balls of the thrust bearing, between its inner and outer rings, and makes it possible to centre the bistable washer in one of its configurations. When a control piston is placed in the thrust bearing, the force for tilting the bistable washer from one of its configurations to its other configuration is exerted by an edge of the inner ring. This force is very localized and the precision of its application depends, in particular, on the precision of production of the inner ring and on the positioning of the bistable washer relative to this ring. In addition, the axial space requirement of this thrust bearing is relatively large, to the extent that the inner ring must be extended up to resting on the bistable washer.
Similar problems are posed with other rolling bearings provided with a bistable washer.
It is these drawbacks that the invention is intended more particularly to remedy by proposing a new ball or roller bearing in which the distribution of the tilting force of a bistable washer, from one of its configurations to its other configuration, may be optimized.